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Apple Pulls Reviews From Online Store Product Listings

YaBe said:
This board is full of haters, but also full of people that think Bad Apple review = Fake.

Like Apple cannot do anything bad.

The thing is, the issue lies in Apple's review mechanism, how can one rate something that has not purchased?

It is hard to implement a "verified purchase" a la Amazon?

I find it entertaining to read some comments (as in some are really stupid), from both sides, and I believe the truth is in the middle.

Since Apple is a company (so nothing against Apple pre se) it should read:
"
Your money is very important to us!!!!
*Your opinions, not so much....
"
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Nope, it reads perfectly because "You" represents the data you give up to Apple about yourself.

Therefore You and Your money are important.
 
I’ve been with Apple 15 years now, from iPod, macs, phones, iPads, homepod. So it’s safe to say I’m biased towards them because I love their products but in all those years I’ve only ever bought one thing from an Apple store which is my MacBook Pro. The store has always been way overpriced and has anyone ever noticed that there are very few good reviews for any products?
 
Apple products site is for promotion NOT for possible demotion of their products!

For critics there are opportunities to host customers reviews and there hundreds of means and methods available.

Let’s learn to deal with it
 
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I don't think I have ever seen a positive review of any products on the Apple store reviews. People just love to complain, not praise, products.
 
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To be honest the reviews on Apple were never helpful. It’s probably better not to have them if they can’t do them right. However Apple isn’t the best with pr. At least give a bs explanation.
 
macfacts said:
If you were able to detect the fake reviews, perhaps everyone else could too, so the fake reviews are doing nothing.
Click to expand...

Or you might just loose interest in the reviews on that site knowing they intentionally left fakes in there - and you’d go to a more professional source for information.
 
rjp1 said:
Whenever I had to exchange a broken lightning cable, smart battery case, or MagSafe charger, they’d always comment how they had never seen this happen before. I’d then ask if it was their first day, because their own website has 10’s of thousands of 1 star reviews for them breaking so easy. I would have never brought this up if they didn’t try to lie about never seeing this before.
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I believe they are just following the scrip: "assure customer that it is something very uncommon and build trust into high quality of Apple products".
 
What? You don't want things curated for you? lol. Stop thinking different. Start spending you silly plebs. Tim Apple needs more money. Honestly, removing reviews seems petty. All one needs to do is use a search engine to find all the reviews needed to come to buying decision. Removing them from the Apple site just drives traffic away from their web site.
 
Mike_Trivisonno said:
What? You don't want things curated for you? lol. Stop thinking different. Start spending you silly plebs. Tim Apple needs more money. Honestly, removing reviews seems petty. All one needs to do is use a search engine to find all the reviews needed to come to buying decision. Removing them from the Apple site just drives traffic away from their web site.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure they do it to avoid web traffic. Besides a huge portion is accessing the store via their apps these days too.
 
I'm pleased. User or fake user reviews on so many sites are truly misleading. Some over greedy people expect everything and moan/bitch about anything just to satisfy themselves. You only have to read the negativity on this site from some 'real' comments or 9to5Mac (which is even worse) to clarify that!

If you like a product, save up for it and buy it. If you are not pleased with it - return it. It's the same with a film review or even food - some love it, some hate it or find fault with it.

Good on Apple!
 
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Mike_Trivisonno said:
What? You don't want things curated for you? lol. Stop thinking different. Start spending you silly plebs. Tim Apple needs more money. Honestly, removing reviews seems petty. All one needs to do is use a search engine to find all the reviews needed to come to buying decision. Removing them from the Apple site just drives traffic away from their web site.
Click to expand...
Tim Apple has plenty of money lol. More than he will every be able to spend, and he’s giving it all away to charity anyway, so there’s that lol.

If Mr. Apple wants to take the reviews down because there are to many fake reviews it’s fine with me. Amazon leaves theirs up, many companies don’t even offer reviews, some just remove all the bad ones.

Which is most helpful to buyers?
 
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Paradoxally said:
Watch Apple claim this was a bug to hide the fact that many people leave negative reviews on their products (mainly cables and other accessories which have dreadful longevity, not to mention being overpriced).
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It seemed to me like the reviews were being abused to get at Apple. As for the cables, I’ve never had a problem with one personally. I am also averse to third party cables due to fire and security risk.
 
code-m said:
You do realize that Amazon has a filter for "verified purchasers" and are aware and working out a solution. These things don't happen overnight. Not taking sides, just saying it seems misleading about the Amazon comment taking 10-15 mins when there is a filter in place for what one seeks.
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There’s nothing misleading about it, you just misread. I said verified purchaser helps, did you miss that?

I said 10-15 minutes reading and analyzing. There’s no filter for that, is there, so your comment makes zero sense.
 
"A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.” - Steve Jobs

Removing reviews is absolutely consistent with a culture that knows what's best for us.
 
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I've read about them getting a lot of 1 star reviews on items that haven't even shipped yet. Probably implementing a system that makes you verify your purchase before leaving a review.
 
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cardfan said:
To be honest the reviews on Apple were never helpful. It’s probably better not to have them if they can’t do them right. However Apple isn’t the best with pr. At least give a bs explanation.
Click to expand...

“There was a Chinese law that made us remove them.”
 
FreshBoy said:
I’ve been with Apple 15 years now, from iPod, macs, phones, iPads, homepod. So it’s safe to say I’m biased towards them because I love their products but in all those years I’ve only ever bought one thing from an Apple store which is my MacBook Pro. The store has always been way overpriced and has anyone ever noticed that there are very few good reviews for any products?
Click to expand...

Apple store is not actually overpriced, but it never has any discounts like other big retailers: John Lewis, Argos, Currys, Amazon etc.

However, the Apple store is still the only place imo to offer absolutely hassle free returns no questions asked, unlike others. Therefor, it’s still the best place to purchase Apple stuff.
 
They need to have something in place for reviews right? But every time I've glanced at product reviews on there they've been next to useless. "1 ⭐️- this thing costs way too much." That's not helpful in the slightest. Its a fine line though between curating something to get rid of the obvious trolls & bots and censorship.

Its not the Wild West that Amazon reviews are, but I stopped looking ages ago because they were such a waste of time.
 
I am not terribly surprised. Never have I seen so many terrible reviews of products that are mostly good. In fact, the reviews of the same products on Amazon were at least 1 if not 2 stars higher. Somehow only those who were complaining would go to the Apple website to review a product it seems.
 
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Reviews as a whole is a slippery slope in business. And given the extra “attention” Apple gets only magnifies things. People that love products are not always leaving reviews. But people who hate do.

illustration of Apple negativity focus in tech. Imagine if iPhones were suddenly blowing up and burning up cars and homes because of a design flaw? The fact that Samsung still makes phones is a testament to the soft treatment they got from media.

I never understood why Apple had the reviews there.
 
Online reviews are rapidly becoming less useful because many are fake, both the positive and the negative ones. Because most of Apple's products already have professional reviews, I can understand Apple's decision.

Also, for whatever reason, the reviews on Apple's site always struck me as practically useless anyway. Amazon in particular has lots of good reviews by a weird unpaid army of people who seem to like to write useful reviews.
 
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ghostwriter said:
"A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.” - Steve Jobs

Removing reviews is absolutely consistent with a culture that knows what's best for us.
Click to expand...
I didn’t know I wanted an iPhone until Apple showed it to me. Same with iPad. And the Watch. And HomePod. And AirPods Pro. So it seems like Jobs is the genius we all know him as. Excellent quote!

But fake one-star reviews of products that sell hundreds of millions of units per year? Yeah, I don’t want that.

Turns out Apple really does know best! You nailed it. Thanks Tim Apple!
 
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